NEW DELHI: Availing digital payments facility while traveling will soon be a reality as all 6000 stations in the railway network are set to get free WiFi connections in the next 120 days said, Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal.

The minister said that 711 railway stations across India are already equipped with free WiFi and the target is to offer the same facility in 6000 plus stations in the next four months. He made this announcement while addressing the launch of the project in collaboration with the Google Cultural Institute termed as ‘The Railways-Lifeline of the Nation’ (digitization of Indian Railway Heritage and bringing it online for wider dissemination and worldwide viewing).

“Google with railways has provided free WiFi in over 400 stations, this shows how powerful collaborations can be and how it can be used to serve the people.”

“We should expand this to all 6000 stations so that local people in the vicinity of the stations, particularly from the poor or marginalised sections of the society can use this and enjoy the fruits of the country’s development,” he added.

He urged technology giant Google to partner with the Indian Railways to enable free WiFi across more railway stations. He highlighted the vitality of the partnership in making this project successful.

“We have offered over 5000 stations for public private partnership on Rail Sahayog website for WiFi…maybe Google can take some of these stations up. I hope to have WiFi connections in all 6000 stations in the next 120 days in the spirit of partnership,” he said.

The project between Indian railways and Google is set to showcase the heritage of Indian Railways on Google Arts and Culture, an online platform of art and culture by the search engine major. The platform will be organising over 100 online exhibitions, more than 150 videos and 3500 images.

“The extraordinary heritage, history and culture of Indian Railways is truly fascinating, and a treat for both the young and the old. This initiative is all about the iconic moments, the heritage, and the making of Indian Railways, which today is the backbone of the country in many ways,” said Amit Sood, Director, Google Cultural Institute.

The online platform has collaborated with over 1800 institutions across 80 countries globally, with 50 million people using the Google Arts & Culture platform every month. In India, Google Arts & Culture has joined hands with more than 50 cultural institutions to help digitally exhibit the country’s rich culture online.